Criminals use IPOB, ESN identity to commit crimes – Gov Umahi

Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State on Thursday acknowledged that criminals now use the identity of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN) to commit crime in the southeast.

Governor Umahi in a media interaction on Thursday said that there are bandits everywhere in the country, noting that some criminals disguise under IPOB and ESN to commit crimes so that the federal government will continue to persecute the agitating groups in the southeast while the criminals are being shielded.

The Ebonyi governor on Channels Television programme monitored from Lagos on Thursday declared: “The truth of what is happening is that there are bandits everywhere; there are cultists everywhere.

“What happens now in southeast is that criminals who may not necessarily be members of IPOB and ESN, will go and commit crimes and they need a name.

“So, it is safer for them to say they are members of ESN, and IPOB so that the persecution of IPOB and ESN by the Federal Government will cover them.

“That is what is happening in southeast because IPOB and ESN have a number of times come out to say they are not into terrorism and violence, and the people burning police stations and killing are not their members. And so how do you reconcile the two?”

Governor Umahi said that attacks on police stations and others should not be accepted by southeast governors, making a case for all governors in the zone to resist the ugly trend.

“It is a monster that we must not allow to arise in the southeast. “When they finish with that (attacking police stations) they will start attacking stakeholders to kill them,” the governor had stated, among other issues.

There have been cases of attacks on police stations from Ebonyi to Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Abia state in the southeast.